PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 2 Teacher Support Programme
Robin Hood
Chapter 4: After the events at the church, Prince John sells Robin’s lands to the Sheriff and the situation of the villagers gets worse. Much the forester is found carrying a dead deer and, as he cannot pay for it, the Sheriff will kill him. He then tells the Sheriff he can lead him to Robin, but escapes into the forest. He is killed and his house burnt down. Much’s son joins Robin. Chapter 5: On a walk along the forest, Robin meets Little John, a big and strong man. They fight. Little John wins and throws Robin into the river. Robin then invites him to join his group in the forest. Chapter 6: Will finds a sad Sir Richard of Lee in the Summary forest and takes him to Robin. He needs help to repay the When the evil Sheriff of Nottingham discovers that Robin money lent to him by the Abbot of St Mary’s to save his Hood, the popular robber of Sherwood Forest, is really son’s life. Robin offers him the sum he needs and Little the land-owning Robin Fitzooth of Locksley, he devises John goes with him, but they want to test the Abbot and a plan to catch him at his wedding to Marian Fitzwalter. see if he’s ready to be flexible. But, as always when cornered by the sheriff, Robin uses his superior skill and cunning to evade capture. However, he Chapter 7: They find out the Abbot will not wait another cannot now return to his lands, and becomes an outlaw. year for the money so that he can have Sir Richard’s lands He settles in the forest of Sherwood with a band of trusty and house. When Little John adds the sum Sir Richard men. needs to meet the full amount of the debt, the Abbot is very angry. King Richard supports him and restores Robin’s land. Richard dies, his brother John ascends to the throne and Chapter 8: In the summer, Lady Marian and her father once more Robin finds himself pitted against the sheriff. have their big party. The Sheriff knows Robin will be Inevitably he escapes, but not before receiving a mortal there. When his men try to catch him, another fight wound. He dies and is buried in the forest of Sherwood. breaks out. Chapter 1: Sir George Gamwell fights against a Norman Chapter 9: The next day, the Sheriff visits Marian’s father lord who wants his lands. His two sons and his wife are and announces he wants to marry his daughter. Marian killed, leaving him with his only daughter, Joanna. He does not talk to him but she listens behind a door. Her teaches her to defend herself. She falls in love with a father advises her to marry the Sheriff but she refuses. Norman and, as her father will not accept him, she escapes Chapter 10: Now Marian has to flee to the forest too, to the forest with him. They have a boy, Robin Fitzooth. as she refuses to marry the sheriff. She brings with her Joanna teaches her son to live in the forest. Friar Tuck, but they get separated in the forest. Robin and Chapter 2: At twenty-five, Robin is a kind man who Marian want him to marry them, but first they need to helps poor villagers. When the Sheriff hears stories about find him! a robber called Robin Hood on his lands, he sends one of Chapter 11: Robin finds Friar Tuck working as a his men in disguise to find out about him. The robber is ferryman and has some fun with his boat before asking Robin of Locksley. The Sheriff has a plan: he will go to the friar to officiate at his marriage to Marian, and then St. Mary’s Abbey the next day with his men and arrest to join the outlaw band. Robin before he marries Lady Marian. Chapter 12: To recover the money they have given to Chapter 3: On his wedding day to lovely Lady Marian, Sir Richard, Robin’s men invite two rich churchmen to a the Sheriff’s men interrupt the ceremony and there is a forest dinner and rob them of their clothes, their horses fight outside the abbey. Robin now has to hide in the and their bags full of gold. forest because the Sheriff knows who he is, but he asks Marian to wait for him.
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Robin Hood - Teacher’s notes of 3 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 2 Teacher Support Programme
Robin Hood
Chapter 13: When Sir Richard tries to return the money he blew his horn and Little John came to his aid, but too Robin has lent him, he does not take the gold. Instead, he late. gives him fine clothes and a beautiful white horse for his wife. Background and themes Chapter 14: Once again, the sheriff devises a cunning In Robin Hood, the good thief who steals from the rich plan to catch Robin. He organises an archery contest, to give to the poor exists in many cultures and goes back knowing that Robin will be tempted to prove his mastery. hundreds if not thousands of years. The stories abound in Robin duly comes, wins the contest and escapes. situations where people do not even have enough food to feed their family, and in this situation the ethical question Chapter 15: King Richard arrives in Sherwood himself to arises: Is it acceptable to steal when the only alternative is check up on Robin Hood. When he has satisfied himself starvation for yourself and your family? On a theoretical about the outlaw’s true self, he reveals himself and restores level it seems, from the success of these stories, that the Robin’s lands. answer is yes, but when a person actually becomes a Chapter 16: King Richard dies and Robin is caught and victim of a crime, the answer sometimes changes. In many wounded. From the St. Mary’s Abbey, where he lies dying, societies, particularly modern ones, there is the notion of he shoots an arrow and is then buried in the forest where the victimless crime. Nobody suffers because the victim it falls. has enough money not to miss it, or because the insurance company will pay. In truth, of course, there is no such The original text thing as a victimless crime. There are several versions of the Robin Hood story. Robin of Locksley first appears in English songs of the fourteenth Discussion activities century. Many of the people in the songs are real – King Before reading Richard, who ruled England from 1189 to 1199, and his 1 Discuss: (link to activating schemata) Ask students to brother, John, who became King when his brother died. look at the title and the front cover and say what they Many of the places are real, too – Sherwood Forest, for know about Robin Hood. example, and the nearby city of Nottingham, with its 2 Discuss: Put students into small groups and ask them to look through the illustrations. For each illustration famous castle. There were certainly people living in the and caption, ask them to think of a possible story. forests throughout The Middle Ages. They killed and ate the king’s deer, which was against the law. It is uncertain, Chapters 1–3 however, whether there was one particular outlaw called Before reading 3 Research: Ask students to find information about Robin Hood. A chronicler has it that he was a Wakefield everyday life in feudal times and draw social classes man and took part in Thomas of Lancaster’s rebellion in in a pyramid from least (bottom) to most (top) 1322. important. 4 Discuss: Use the information from the research above Robin became a popular folk hero because of his to decide whether life was hard in feudal times for generosity to the poor and down-trodden peasants, and the king, his soldiers, the men of the church and the his hatred of the Sheriff who enforced the oppressive forest villagers. laws, made him their champion. Some chroniclers date While reading his exploits as taking place during the reign of Edward II, 5 Write: (After reading page 2) Ask students to draw but other versions say the king was Richard I, or Richard the Gamwell family tree. the Lionheart. 6 Discuss: (After reading Chapter 1) Talk about Robin’s life in the forest and his life with his grandfather. All versions of the Robin Hood story give the same Use these questions as a guide: What can he do in the account of his death. As he grew older and became ill, he forest? What can he do in the house? Which does he enjoy went with Little John to Kirklees Priory to be treated by more? his aunt, the Prioress, but a certain Sir Roger de Doncaster 7 Write: (After reading Chapter 3) Lady Marian is persuaded her to murder her nephew and the Prioress at home. Ask students to imagine they are Lady Marian. They write an entry in her diary about what slowly bled Robin to death. With the last of his strength happened at the church. Remind them to write her answer to Robin’s ‘Wait for me.’
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Robin Hood - Teacher’s notes 2 of 3 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 2 Teacher Support Programme
Robin Hood
After reading Chapters 11–13 8 Discuss: Put students into groups to discuss this Before reading question: If you don’t have enough money, is it all right 20 Discuss: Have students discuss the following to steal money or food, particularly from rich people? questions: Will Lady Marian marry Robin? Will the Chapters 4–7 Sheriff catch Robin Hood and put him into prison? Will Robin go back to Locksley House? Before reading 9 Discuss: Have students discuss the following: Would While reading you like to live in a forest now? What things would be 21 Discuss: (page 22) Robin tells Will that he would like different in your life? to try Friar Tuck. Ask students to think of other ways to try Friar Tuck. While reading 22 Role play: (page 22) Marian talks to the friar who 10 Role play: (After reading the introductory paragraph lives in her uncle’s house. Marian and Robin want in Chapter 4) Two villagers compare life on Locksley’s him to marry them, but the friar is afraid. Ask lands before and after Robin went to Sherwood Forest students to imagine the conversation between Marian to hide. Ask students to role play the conversation. and the friar. 11 Discuss: (page 13) Sir Richard tells Robin he has got 23 Artwork: (page 22) Robin and his men are looking £600 but he has to give it to the abbot. Divide the for Friar Tuck. Have students make a ‘wanted’ sign class into two groups. One group thinks of reasons with information about Friar Tuck. why the money should go to the Abbot. The other 24 Write: (page 25) Have students imagine they are Will group gives reasons why Robin should keep the Scarlet. He writes a letter to Sir Richard of Lee and he money. Then they share ideas. tells him how they got the £500 back. 12 Role play: (page 13) Sir Richard of Lee tells his story to Robin and his men. Divide the class into two groups: Chapters 14–16 one is Sir Richard, the other one Robin and his men. Before reading Ask them to pool ideas as to what each might have 25 Guess: The abbot and the sheriff would like to kill said in that conversation. Then re-group them in pairs Robin. Ask students to guess what plans they may and ask them to role play the conversation. have to kill him. After reading While reading 13 Discuss: Robin Hood is able to hide in Sherwood 26 Discuss: (pages 31–34) Get students into groups. Forest and the sheriff can’t find him. How can you Ask them to find three true things which the tall friar hide in a forest? Ask students to think of some ways. says and one false thing. Chapters 8–10 27 Discuss: (page 31) Have students compare King Richard and Prince John. Then, ask them to get into Before reading two groups: one represents King Richard and the 14 Discuss: Have students read the titles of Chapters 8, other Prince John. Each group will say why King 9 and 10. Get them to speculate about Lady Marian’s Richard or Prince John must be the King of England. future. 28 Write: (page 35) The sheriff and his men stop Robin While reading one day with a letter from the king. Ask students to 15 Artwork: (page 15) Ask students to design and draw write the letter the king sent to the sheriff. the invitation to Lord Fitzwalter’s annual summer After reading party. 29 Write: Ask students to imagine they are one of the 16 Guess: (page 18) The Sheriff of Nottingham wants churchmen who were robbed of their money, clothes to marry Lady Marian. He visits her father and will and horses by Robin’s men. Write a letter to the come back the next day for an answer. Ask students to Abbot to tell him about the forest dinner and how guess what Lady Marian will answer. Encourage them Robin stole all their belongings. to account for their answers. 30 Discuss: The Sheriff makes plans to catch Robin. 17 Role play: (page 20) Robin meets Marian in the Have students get into two groups: one thinks of forest. She tells him the news about her father and the other ways to catch Robin and the other thinks how Sheriff. Ask students to role play this conversation. to make the Sheriff’s plans fail. After reading Vocabulary activities 18 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to questions: Is Lady Marian safe in the forest? www.penguinreaders.com. Or is she a danger to Robin and his men? 19 Guess: Where can Friar Tuck be?
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Robin Hood - Teacher’s notes 3 of 3